I've been waiting a little while to do a blog post about these, as I wanted to ensure the recipe was perfected and take some photos in the light (boo dark evenings). Whilst it's still a bit dark for the photos, I couldn't hold out any longer as this is possibly my favourite ever dinner (and even T said that carnitas are even better than Mission Burrito - shock horror!)

'Carnitas' apparently just means 'little meats' in Mexican (thanks Wikipedia) and are basically slowly cooked meats with lots of Mexican flavours, served in tacos, wraps etc. I do these in the slow-cooker and serve either in homemade flatbreads (see here or here), taco shells or standard tortilla wraps. The real thing that makes them amazing is the reducing down and caramelising of the stock at the end - if you don't have a slow cooker that can go on the hob you can just do this in the oven or transfer to a separate pan.

Juice the orange and limes and mix with the garlic and seasoning. Use as a marinade to the pork shoulder and leave overnight (although it doesn't matter too much if you skip the marinading). Place in a slow cooker with the chopped onion, stock and leave for 10-12 hours on low.

Take the pork out of the cooker and let stand for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, reduce the liquid in the slow cooker down until sticky. Chop the pork into large chunks (about 3cm cubes) and mix with the reduced liquid. Serve in some kind of wrap with avocado, salsa, sour cream, fresh coriander and any other Mexican sides.